Linking different documents together

[florian_822]

I’m currently creating the background story of my new book. There is a lot of information floating around in my head and I try to bring them into some order.

I use additional documents, which I link to my main project. For example, I use a Characters document to develop all my characters over the whole history of the story. Its important to me having all these information, because the reader will get the story of the characters in a complete different order than I write it down now. To get things right, I must keep track of all the events, which are happening.
I organize the characters document in chapters, each Character has its own chapter. The timeline of this chapter is the life of the character, from birth to death. The scenes in this chapter describing the different parts of the characters life, each scene also organized in the timeline. I have now different questions:

1. Is it possible to link also against scenes and events? I only have found the possibility to link against chapters. To link against a scene, I must first insert an anchor, which is a avoidable maitaining overhead in my opionion, if linking against scenes and events would be possible.
2. Is it possible to use events over several differnt documents and in different timelines, not only in one timeline? An event can affect more than one scene and one chapter (and in my case, this is even true for the timelines of different documents).
3. Is it possible to add links to the think board (in german its called “Denkbrett”, not sure about the right translation) and vice versa. For example, it would be cool to have a visual relationship tree of all the chracters. Maybe even changing over the time of the story. To keep track, it would help to link the elements of the think board nodes against chapters, scenes or events. It would also help to link it against entries in the database (but I think, I already have seen this feature in some youtube video).
4. Each document in the project has its own think board and its own timelines. This is definitively nice and I’m very glad to have these possibility. It helps me a lot. But even so, I can imagine about some circumstances to share think boards and timelines over different documents (or think the other way around: having one global timeline or think board, which all documents can use). Actually, I don’t want to miss the current functionality. I just wondered myself, if one could add the new sharing functionality to the existing one. In the end, all my documents telling someting about the same story, just with different views. The timeline of this story and the realtionships, I draw in the think board, are for all theses views more or less the same.

Thank you for your help
Florian

[Sam]

@florian_822

Is it possible to link also against scenes and events? I only have found the possibility to link against chapters. To link against a scene, I must first insert an anchor, which is a avoidable maitaining overhead in my opionion, if linking against scenes and events would be possible.

The scenes and events are visible in the Timeline as well, and they can move between threads:

Or did I misunderstand what you’re seeking to do?

@florian_822

Is it possible to use events over several differnt documents and in different timelines, not only in one timeline? An event can affect more than one scene and one chapter (and in my case, this is even true for the timelines of different documents).

Events are, in technical sense, a feature of the actual page itself where they’re added, kind of like comments. Events can’t be linked to another document, unfortunately. Can you copy the events from the main document manually?

@florian_822

Is it possible to add links to the think board (in german its called “Denkbrett”, not sure about the right translation) and vice versa. For example, it would be cool to have a visual relationship tree of all the chracters. Maybe even changing over the time of the story. To keep track, it would help to link the elements of the think board nodes against chapters, scenes or events. It would also help to link it against entries in the database (but I think, I already have seen this feature in some youtube video).

You assign Thinkboards to chapters, scenes and events! Here’s how:

1. Open the split view for the Thinkboard by clicking the Thinkboard icon on the bottom-right of your main view
2. Open the Navigator by clicking the compass on the bottom-left of your main view
3. Now you can drag-and-drop single Thinkboard elements or whole Thinkboards to Chapters, Scenes and Events.
   → The elements are linked, and you can open the Thinkboard elements directly from the Navigator.

You can also create new chapters from Thinkboard elements, maybe that’s what you’re thinking of. Here’s the video you might be thinking about? Groups in the Thinkboard

@florian_822

Each document in the project has its own think board and its own timelines. This is definitively nice and I’m very glad to have these possibility. It helps me a lot. But even so, I can imagine about some circumstances to share think boards and timelines over different documents

You can easily copy and paste Thinkboards and Thinkboard elements from document to another with Copy and Paste!

[florian_822]

@Sam

The scenes and events are visible in the Timeline as well, and they can move between threads:

Or did I misunderstand what you’re seeking to do?

Actually, I want to link against any part of a document, even if it is an other document. When I try to insert a Link or a Hyperlink, I can only choos “chapters” but not “scenes” or “events”.

To link against scenes, events or any other parts of my document, I have to use manual anchors

But unfortunately, I have not found a possibility to link against anything in a different document. In my example, I can only link against something in “Charaktere.pap”

Can you copy the events from the main document manually?

If necessary, I can do this. But I try to avoid any copies whenever I can. Its some part of my former developer sole speaking to me: Try to keep single points of truth, otherwise the mainting of this beast of yours will be your downfall

You can easily copy and paste Thinkboards and Thinkboard elements from document to another with Copy and Paste!

Same, I try to avoid this but if necessary, I will copy it It would be better having references though

[Sam]

@florian_822

Actually, I want to link against any part of a document, even if it is an other document. When I try to insert a Link or a Hyperlink, I can only choos “chapters” but not “scenes” or “events”.

Ah, I see!

You can link to another document, but not to a specific part of it.

Here’s how:

1. Select the text you want to make into a link
2. Right-click, and select “Insert” → “Link”
3. Chose “Local File” as the target, and choose the document you want to link with the “…” -button.

@florian_822

Try to keep single points of truth, otherwise the mainting of this beast of yours will be your downfall

Great maxim! (I need this reminder from time to time as well )

[glucose]

@Sam

You can link to another document, but not to a specific part of it.

Actually, it is possible to link to a specific part of another document. Just add a hashtag and the name of the anchor in the other document to the filename:

Document.pap#my_anchor

It works the same as links in HTML.

Also, table cells can have names as well and it’s possible to pull table data from one document into another using a similar syntax in cell formulas:

[“document.pap#my_named_table_cell”]

[Sam]

@glucose

Actually, it is possible to link to a specific part of another document. Just add a hashtag and the name of the anchor in the other document to the filename:

Amazing. You’re the best ever!